The Williams' Family

ABC's

2012-01-09T21:51:00.002-07:00

I had seen this idea on Pinterest quite some time ago and loved it. So I made all these letters out of leftover cardboard from our move. Koen's room looks even more fun now. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, and all at zero cost! :D

And it all settles down from here

2012-01-01T12:55:00.005-07:00

Since I last blogged, MUCH has happened.

1. Jon completed his undergrad!!! YAY! I, as well as all of his family, is extremely proud and happy for him! In May, we will be going back to Salt Lake to celebrate Jon's graduation from the University of Utah with a major in geography. And guess what! Jon did it with HONORS! He is one super smart cookie!

2. Jon was accepted into Penn State for graduate school! Jon will start working towards his masters in the spring. We are extremely blessed to be able to have Jon further his education even more, especially because his employer is paying for all of his graduate schooling.

3. I had a birthday. Yes, it's true. It seems to come every year! I turned 24 and it was spent mostly in the car, driving towards Missouri. I will remember this birthday as the one we started our new phase of life with. It was made special with phone calls from family and special birthday wishes. :)

4. We moved to St. Louis, Missouri. We made the trip in two days. We live in an apartment good for our family. We have a brick wall that I very much love having! This week, I plan to be using it as a photo backdrop with Koen. :) We are neighbors to a railroad track that is quite active with trains throughout the day and night. (Amazingly, we can all usually sleep through the loud, blaring horn at night.) Koen LOVES seeing a train pass by often, this and the not too high rent makes it bearable. ;) Our ward has many, many, many more children than our last. Koen should be able to easily find many new friends. :) We are liking our ward and believe we'll enjoy it here.

5. Jon started work at the NGA (a part of the Dept. of Defense.) Jon's first day at work was four days after we moved into our new place. He is enjoying it and has said it seems a little weird that he's now started his "career." He works 9 hours each day so that he can have every other Friday off and is starting a Fitness Program they have that allows him to workout in their gym one hour, three days a week, and still be paid for that time. I am so happy that Jon really enjoys where he is and feels that he will enjoy it for a very long time. I feel so blessed that he has a job that provides security for our family and should allow Jon to still be able to spend a lot of time with his family. We are blessed and so appreciative of this job.

6. We celebrated our Savior's birthday! This was the warmest Christmas I've ever had. Koen would say, "Merry Christmas Tree!" to us and simply loved the whole day. We tried to teach Koen about it being Jesus' birthday and how special Jesus is. When we asked whose birthday it was, he knew it was Jesus'. But I think he found the Christmas tree more exciting and definitely loved opening those presents. I really enjoyed going to church that Sunday and hearing the beautiful music that was prepared. I really love Christmas time and I really loved taking some moments to remind myself what Christmas is for and why we celebrate it. I loved thinking about the incredible time when Jesus was born and how greatly his birth has affected my life, as well as the entire world's.

7. We celebrated 5 years of marriage! It doesn't seem like 5 years ago. I still feel like we're newly married and we are definitely still learning so much about married life! But in the last five years, we have come so far together and things are wonderful. I am grateful to have Jon by my side and to have the kind of husband that I do. He is an amazing person. We celebrated as a family by going to a new restaurant together and getting dessert at Cold Stone. It was yummy and fun.

8. We casually celebrated the end of one year and the start of a new. We spent our New Years Eve spending gift card money to get some new movies. Watched our new Tarzan movie with Koen as we ate lunch. Did a little football bowl game watching while I worked on a project I'm doing for Koen's bedroom. Jon and I ate junky food as we watched True Grit. We were both a little, or a lot, sleepy while watching the movie. I tried finding a countdown online (we don't have tv to watch it on). I found one thinking we had 16 seconds to spare (Oh what great timing! We were cutting it close!). And then I found out... we missed it and were 16 seconds into 2012. This is actually somewhat similar to last year when we spent the New Year at my parents and missed it by I think 9 seconds. ... Maybe next year we'll make it! haha :) We of coursed still kissed and then went straight to bed. No more partying for us two tired people, especially with 9:00 church in the morning!

Koen likes to put this plastic "crown" on his head and it makes me smile every time. Its really from the inside of a toy construction hat. Koen also likes to wear our shoes.

Our last 2011 picture together.

A quick shot of my favorite boys at the zoo.

Things should slow down for now. At least we're not expecting anything exciting to be going on super soon.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Terrific Twos

2011-12-06T08:41:00.008-07:00

It has happened!!! Koen is two years old and we are the parents of a two year old! I very much echo all parents who say, "the time goes by so fast!"

I no longer have a little baby boy (said with a small pout) but a terrific two year old! Koen brings more joy into each day than I could have ever imagined.

Koen loved his birthday! We had been talking about it with him quite a while before it came, to help it be super exciting for him. He knew before hand that his cake would be in the shape of a train and he seemed to be most excited for his "train cake."

When Koen woke up on his birthday, I sang 'Happy Birthday' to him as we got him ready for the day. He got a huge smile and was loving it. Afterwards he said, "More. More song." I love how much he loved it. Koen really loved all of the birthday calls he got! He would have liked to talk on the phone all day, even though he really didn't say much when he actually got on the phone. But to those who did call... Koen had a huge smile the entire time and thought it was so fun!

We went to Costco for his birthday lunch. Koen loves Costco and especially loves getting to have a little bit of soda. I think finishing our soda made his day alone. We later searched out trains to watch and then drove through a nearby cemetery to see the deer that are often there.

Jenny came over to help us celebrate. Koen loved his cake and the gifts that friends and family gave him.

Here's a look back at Koen and how much our sweet young boy has grown!

Koen's original birth day.

One Year Old

Baby face gone... little man here!

Two years!

3 Weeks

2011-11-22T16:45:00.002-07:00

It's official! We are set to leave for our new long-term home of St. Louis, MO in three short weeks! Jon is going to start work with the NGA again on the 19th of December. YAY! We are so happy that he can start working so quickly after school. It is a tremendous blessing and we are so grateful the Lord is giving it to us.

Packing has started and things are being cleaned out. We will put forth our biggest push to pack next week after the Thanksgiving festivities.

We will head out early on the 13th (my birthday), the day after Jon's last final. If weather is kind to us, we will make it to our destination in a few days, allowing us a few more days to unpack and then relax. Our guess in our family, we like to keep December as packed with festivities and events as possible! :)

Hopefully my next post will be more interested in fun photos. This week has and will continue to be full of fun family togetherness and next week is Koen's birthday. So hopefully I'll be able to produce for you all. ;)

Have a super Thanksgiving friends!

Halloween Time & < 6 Wks

2011-11-04T15:03:00.008-06:00

Before Halloween greeted us, we got together with some friends who have a girl several months older than Koen. We carved pumpkins and the kids had a blast using the seeds in their little kitchen.

A ton of leaves had fallen off a large tree near our home one morning, so Koen and I had a good time throwing them around and watching more of them fall off the trees as the wind blew. Koen thought it was great and people walking by seemed to enjoy watching him too.

Roene's daughter, Wendy was so sweet and gave Koen a perfect pumpkin she had grown. Koen helped me decorate the pumpkin. He was too nervous to really put his hand deep in the pumpkin while it had a ton of seeds inside, but loved stirring a spoon inside of it and stirring the seeds in a bowl. Koen helped me paint the pumpkin after we gutted it and he thought painting was extremely fun. It was Koen's first painting experience. (We are dressed for potential painting mess, which is why we look like we're ready for bed.)

The white pumpkin is the one that Koen and I did together. It is very much inspired and a lot like one I saw on pinterest.com. The other two pumpkins are what we carved with our friends. Unfortunately, we seemed to pick out some bad pumpkins at the patch because they were rotting and moldy very quickly. My pumpkin actually had a gross dark patch inside of it when I first carved it. But it really doesn't bother me because I think their shriveling look added a nice touch to Halloween. :) Koen loved taking the lids off to look inside.

Here is Koen on Halloween day, dressed as a monkey. This costume could possibly fit him next year and I like that I can use it for any future children, no matter their gender. :) There's a sewn banana on his costume, hidden by his arm, but Koen liked to pretend to eat it. I think it was his favorite part. I took Koen trick or treating to a few families from our ward who live on our street. He was nervous to go to a couple of doors, but quickly felt comfortable taking candy their candy. He loved the dogs he saw at a couple of homes and even ran through one sisters home while we chatted. I had to go in to catch him.

This is actually the Friday before Halloween. We went to a party. Jon is Spartacus and I am Spartacus' wife. We all had a super fun time. Koen got to stay up till midnight and slept very well that night and late into the morning. :) And yes, Koen did very well even though he was up so long.

< (Less than) 6 weeks is the time we have left before Jon graduates with his bachelors degree and we hopefully are moving to Missouri for the next stage of our life. I say hopefully because we are still waiting to hear details as to when Jon will start work with the Department of Defense at the NGA and we are hoping he can start very quickly after graduation. We should hear from them VERY, VERY SOON, since they informed us that we should hear from them in September or October and it is now November. I'm trying to have patience, but naturally we want details and want to be able to get a place to live reserved soon.

Koen turns two in less than a month and I am totally having those "it seems like yesterday when you were only a newborn" thoughts. I very much miss having a little babe, but very much love the stage the Koen is in. He talks so much more and I love hearing how he pronounces certain words, especially with such enthusiasm. He is so much fun! I love playing with him, watching him and listening to him. Koen is such a wonderful boy and a blessing in many lives, especially mine.

Nebo Loop

2011-10-23T20:19:00.004-06:00

A couple Saturdays ago we took a drive on the Nebo loop. It was BEAUTIFUL! Both Jon and I asked ourselves why we had never taken that drive before. Had we known the beauty it held this time of year, it would have been a tradition.

VERY EARLY on we were wowed by the colors that filled the hills and mountains.

Imagine seeing this in person, and it kept going on the sides you can not see. To add to the picture perfect scene, there was a white horse in the field to the right, but I'm trying not to overwhelm my post with tons of photos, so instead, you get to see this view.

It was a drive that was full of continual "oohs and awes" around almost every turn. I loved it. We took our drive in the afternoon, I bet if we were to go during sunrise or sunset, it would be even more amazing and grand. For all of you Utahans... I highly suggest this drive in autumn before the leaves fall off!

Union Station

2011-10-23T19:53:00.002-06:00

Koen LOVES trains! So we spent a little time at Union Station in Ogden. You can freely walk around and in some of the trains. Koen thought it was pretty cool.

Look at how massive the wheels are compared to these two handsome boys:
This is Koen smiling for a picture while looking at something more interesting than the regular sight of my camera lens.
And just a little proof that I went along too.

Kisses and Smiles

2011-10-11T12:26:00.009-06:00

Four new posts today.

Bountiful

2011-10-11T12:05:00.002-06:00

Last week we took a drive in Bountiful on a road we hadn't been on before. It was beautiful, though I wish the sun had shined for us so that we could see so many more colors. Unfortunately, we couldn't see anything but white as we drove through fog and snow at times. But I am grateful for the moments when we were allowed to see God's beautiful land.

A Great October Start

2011-10-11T11:14:00.012-06:00

General Conference is always a great start to October. Mom and Dad were able to come down with general conference tickets and we were blessed to have Elder Bodily and his companion sit with us! (Thank you President Winn! - though I doubt you'll see this.)

Kevin is still super fun to be with.

He and Dad spent our "waiting for things to start" time looking over fun gadgets.
We played games waiting for other sessions to start. It was my super lucky day at Farkel, I won both games!
Mom/Grandma B./Nana played outside with the kids.

Koen fell asleep during the afternoon session opening prayer, which is why his arms are folded. I guess Jon though Koen was cute enough to eat.
Watching football.
Grandpa played trains with the kids too. This is Koen's favorite toy to play with at Abigail's house.
We celebrated Abigail's 3rd birthday and she was sweet enough to share her birthday present with Koen.
Koen and Dad walking out together just before our good-byes.
Koen also loves trucks, so Grandpa was nice enough to let him "drive."

Simple September Pleasures

2011-10-11T10:56:00.004-06:00

Here's a few things we did in September.

Koen loves hiding under the sheets!

He loves to wear our shoes,
and to put coins into the bank:
Koen still loves trains! Here, he is waiting for a train to pass by. (Also wearing his Thomas the Train shirt, which has a button that makes a train sound.)

Date Night

2011-09-16T11:04:00.004-06:00

Jon and I don't go out on dates nearly as often as we should or wish we did. We use excuses such as not having a babysitter and wanting to save money. But man, do I still want to go out with my man!!!

So yesterday morning, I invited Jon to go on a date with me and he said... YES! What a relief! ;)

The time: After Koen goes to bed.

The Place: The Bedroom.

The Activity: A game I made up.

I created a game with an original name of, "The Questions and Surprises Game". It consisted of 15 slips of papers which had either a question (all of which I directed to Jon) or a surprise on it. Since I directed all the questions to him, I allowed him to ask me any questions he came up with as well. Some of my surprises included him trying to find hidden notes around the room in 60 seconds, a hand and foot massage, and getting yummy treats (a candy bar).

Our date turned out to be a success. :) It was fun to do something a little different than our usual evening routine and get to know each other even more than we already do. Though we were still home, there's something great about planning something simple out and calling it a date. I was proud of myself for thinking of a date that only cost us $1.80, which was the cost of 3 candy bars. I am going to try to see what other in-home dates I can come up with, and if I think they're worth sharing, I will! ;)

This is our game. Feel free to read my rules, I tried to add a little humor to it.

The first slip of paper we chose was, "The oldest person in the room gets a yummy treat."

I made sure to include a paper that instructed us to take a picture together. You can see a few of the lights I had strung up around the room, which was another fun way of making our date a little different and our date location seem a tad different from, "our bedroom".

If any of you other lovely people think of fun and thrifty dates to do with your best friend, feel free to share!

Handsome boy

2011-09-11T19:25:00.004-06:00

I cut Koen's hair for my first time. Thanks to Jon's idea of distracting him with the sink, he did pretty well!

Koen after his haircut: He also wanted to wear Jon's tie and thought it was super neat!

Backpacking the Uintas

2011-09-10T15:29:00.002-06:00

We went backpacking for the first time as a family just before the Labor Day weekend. We hiked a trail that Jon did with Kevin last year before he left on his mission. It was a 16 mile hike and gave us both a great work out.

At the start of the trail.

Koen got to hike part of it himself! He LOVED being able to take a break from the carrier and stretch his legs! He also loved picking up many rocks and sticks.
We had to cross this bridge. The river underneath was moving rather quickly.
Yay! We made it to camp!

Jon heated up a yummy meal for us.

Koen loved checking out Dollar Lake that was nearby.

We hid Koen's next day lunch (PB&J sandwich) away from camp during the night. I guess someone else thought it looked yummy because they replaced it with a pine cone.
Heating up water for our breakfast.

Koen thought the tent was pretty cool.

Pointing to the lake.
This is the valley looking towards Kings Peak and Dollar Lake, where we camped. Beautiful.

Jon was still going strong even though he really wasn't feeling his greatest this morning.

It was such a fun hike. Koen did super well and loved the whole experience. He stayed a safe distance from the fire, fell asleep so quickly when it was time for bed, and he didn't complain even though he spent so much time strapped in a carrier. Jon chose a great trail for our first family backpacking trip! Thank you Emma and Denver for letting us borrow your carrier again!

Busy in SLC

2011-08-22T11:27:00.008-06:00

Grandma B. arrived in Salt Lake just days after Koen and I arrived from Missouri. We were so lucky to have her for over a week! We love spending time with her whenever we can.

We went to This Is The Place park and had tons of fun in the village. Koen LOVES trains right now and especially loved getting to ride the train around the village several times.

Our family has a deep love for ice cream, so when Koen saw this giant dessert he couldn't resist!
Before our tour of the village was over, Koen was exhausted and his head plopped right onto Grandma B.

We had fun at Wheeler's Farm.

Grandma B. knew that a chair on top of a couch is a lot of fun.

We went out to lunch at Garnder's Village, which is a super cute place. I apologize for my hair that got in front of the lens.

Just like many other toddlers, Koen is attracted to any puddle of water.

We spent some time playing in the park.

Not only the kids had tons of fun.

Unfortunately, Koen didn't find this toy quite as fun as the rest of us.

Abigail's train is Koen's favorite toy at her house.
Koen and Grandma B. had fun together all the way to the moment she needed to leave. We loved having you here Mom!

We are super excited that Jon is back home too! He surprised us by coming home a day earlier than we expected! I cried and hugged him very tightly for a long time as soon as I met him out the door. It is so good to have him home with us!!!

We've been playing in the water together.
Just thought it was cute seeing Koen in some sunglasses.
We had a picnic in the mountains that we missed seeing throughout the summer.
I will greatly miss places like this when we go back to Missouri.
Koen thinks the vacuum is fun right now.
Koen got a hold of a red marker last week that resulted in very red fingers.
I just love this sweet boy's smile!

One Home to Another

2011-07-27T22:13:00.006-06:00

A couple days before heading back to Utah, Jon's mom and sister came over to visit. We had a great time seeing some new sights.

While Jon was working, Carla, Jenny, Koen and I headed to the Butterfly House. There were some amazing butterflies there and we really had a good time.

You may not know it through the picture, but it was EXTREMELY hot and HUMID inside the actual butterfly house to keep it true to the tropical butterflies natural habitat. We were all very uncomfortable there. Thank goodness there were A LOT of awesome butterflies to make it worth it!
Koen loved taking Grandma around to show her neat things.

Could you imagine we live in St. Louis and NOT go to the famous St. Louis Arch? Well, we felt it simply didn't seem right to pass it up.
Waiting for our turn to ride to the top.
At the top of the arch.
I was surprised by how small the windows were.
A few shots of what the view looks like from the top of the arch.

Looking across the Mississippi River at Illinois.

What a blessing it was to have Jenny travel back to Utah with us. Jenny was such a help with Koen during our long days of driving. Koen loved having her around.

Though he's only a year and a half, Koen is often up for a friendly pillow fight too.

Carla and Jenny were so sweet to watch Koen for us one night so that Jon and I could go on a date. We watched a movie in 3D and Jon gave Koen his 3D glasses afterwards. He thought they were pretty cool.

My awe of the beautiful Utah mountains never seems to fail when I see them again after being away for a time. I was so happy to see them again when we came in. I love the Wasatch mountain range so much. They will be tremendously missed when we say our farewells after Jon graduates. Though I very quickly missed the abundance of greenery when I saw the hills by the University and north Salt Lake were brown. I imagine that in Heaven, Jon and I will discover a place with beautiful, majestic snow capped mountains and land blanketed in rich, green life.

2011-07-18T09:00:00.003-06:00

A couple of weeks ago the rain was pouring and we decided to let Koen cool off in the rain and have a little fun.

He's actually starting to shiver in this photo, so we decided to head in. But Koen would have loved to stay out there longer, despite the shivers.

We also made a second trip to the zoo so that Koen could see parts he slept through last time. We also went early enough to get to go to the Children's Zoo inside for free. There was a fountain that Koen loved playing in. We kept hoping that as he would bend over to drink the water or look closely at where it was coming from, that it would shoot up. I know that may not seem nice, but it would have been a hilarious thing to witness and capture on video! haha
Koen enjoyed getting to pet the goats.
It was a very hot day. I sort of envied this bear as he cooled off in his pool.

Koen has a few faces that he likes to make. This is his grumpy face:
His silly face.
And his cute face.

We went paddle boating for our family day last Saturday. It was a lot more work on our legs than we expected and extremely hot. I won't be planning this activity for the middle of the summer again. By the time we were done, you could see sweat all down the back of my shirt. (Gross!) We felt pretty icky afterwards, but it was still fun. Koen even got to steer the boat for a time.
This is the view as we headed towards a bridge.

That was our last Saturday together as a family in Missouri this summer. Koen and I are headed back to Salt Lake with Jenny later this week. Our summer here has sped by so very fast and we are going to miss being with Jon for the next several weeks. Lets hope the time flies by quickly while we're apart too! I hope all is well for all of you!

Our 7-4-11 Weekend

2011-07-13T05:47:00.001-06:00

We had such a wonderful time spending our Fourth of July weekend in Arkansas. We were able to visit and play with family that we haven't seen for a while. It was nice to have the entire Williams family together and I enjoyed celebrating our country's independence with them.

Jeremy was quickly playing with Koen.

Jenny is showing her Grandpa Williams a photo book of one of her past summer adventures.
Koen soaked in all of the attention he got from his cousins and loved playing with them.

A new family tradition was born with our first annual water fight. It was "gallons" of fun!

Tom and Carla very much participated. This is after a lot of their water battles.

Jon just unkinked the hose. Koen didn't mind much.

Can you guess what Koen is communicating to me? This is what he does when he becomes stinky.

Four generations.

Koen standing in his grandpa's boots. There is a photo of Jon doing the same thing when he was very little too.

Jon and I hadn't seen his Grandpa Williams since before we were married 5 years ago. I didn't remember he was such a funny guy. We were so glad that he could be there with us. I love this first one of him because of his smile.
I thought I would post this one so that you can see his eyes as well.
A few shots with Koen just before we left.

We stopped by the Memphis temple on our way back home. It is the smallest temple I believe I have seen! Of course, it was very beautiful as well.

What a good weekend we had. :) I hope it was the same for all of you too.

Top of the State

2011-06-28T09:50:00.005-06:00

Since Jon has a love of mountain climbing and making it to high mountain peaks, we thought that though it's not all that high, we'd go to the highest land point that Missouri has. So we drove 90 minutes south-west to Taum Sauk Mountain. We enjoyed seeing a new part of the state. We crossed a Koen Creek on the way too!

This sign is at the start of the paved trail.

I expected enough trail that I thought the stroller would be helpful. Jon made sure to keep the ride exciting for Koen by lifting the front of the stroller along the way.

MAYBE a tenth of a mile from the start of the trail, we came to this: The top of Missouri.

As you can see... the journey was exhausting.

Jon and Koen celebrate their achievement.
We laughed at how extremely short the trail was. We knew it wasn't going to be long or hard since it was much lower in elevation that what we're use to and it was a completely paved trail. But, we certainly did not expect it to be nearly as short as what this trail really was. Its probably equivalent to the distance that you would walk from the back of the parking lot into the store. haha

We saw another boulder close by that looked higher than the marked high point of the hill. So we thought we'd climb to the top of it just in case it was a tad higher.
Jon took a moment to meditate in the beautiful and peaceful environment.

This was a view-point down the road from the trail. Much of what we've seen in Missouri looks like this; on-going hills of trees. I often can not tell where more residential or commercial areas are when I get to the top of a hill because the trees hide it all.

After our lovely short walk, we enjoyed a small picnic. Though I felt so silly for having us drive an hour and half to walk such a tiny distance, we had a good time and we can now say that we've been to the top of Missouri.

Abs of Steal

2011-06-21T06:36:00.000-06:00

She Needs a Post Too!

2011-06-20T08:01:00.002-06:00

I wasn't convinced that Mom would post a Happy Birthday blog for herself, so I wanted to make sure she wasn't left out.

Happy Birthday to this Lovely Lady and Wonderful Woman! She's a Grand Grandma/Neat Nana/Gorgeous Grandma B. and a Magnificent Mom!

From all of your kids... though I didn't get their permission to speak on their behalf, I'm sure this time will be ok...

Happy 55th Birthday!!!!

Sites of STL

2011-06-13T06:31:00.002-06:00

It's not uncommon for people to shorten Salt Lake City with SLC. Here, people use STL instead of writing out St. Louis.

Koen loves the park. Whether humid or not outside, he loves to play out there as long as he can.

We visited the science center. It was interesting, though probably a little more fun for kids older than Koen. Science Center Admission: Free Science Center Parking: $9 (It seems several of the free places around here earn their money with high parking lot prices. The Zoo's parking lot charges $12! So our suggestion if you visit here... park along the side of the road and walk. So far we've had good success with this.)

The Science Center has a bridge the crosses the freeway. There are a few spots that you can look through the floor and watch cars drive underneath. They also have small posts that you can point towards cars driving by and it will show you their speed.
This is the amount of money that would be needed in order to send that single carton of milk up into space. I'm sorry I forgot to picture the actual dollar amount... but that is still a lot!
This is how much it would cost for me to go up into space. Jon and Koen can go together for $1,710,000.

We live very close to the Merrimac River and it has flooded. We thankfully live far away/high enough we are not concerned about being flooded ourselves. But if you look closely, you can see that the soccer and baseball field below is very much flooded. It has since gone down and I'm seeing long grasses poking through the water now. But it is still very well flooded. There was a time that this field was dry several weeks ago.

We visited the World's Bird Sanctuary. I apologize for not picturing any birds from there. Koen enjoyed the birds as he always does, but this time he really enjoyed the dirt and rocks the most!
Just across the road from the bird sanctuary, there is an Elk park. These are the only elk we saw. They were enjoying the hot, humid day relaxing in the water. I was wishing that I was doing the same thing at that time too. We also saw a few buffalo and a turtles.

Forest park is a large and beautiful park in St. Louis. It is larger than Central Park in New York. A large hot spot for cooling off this place:

Notice what the sign reads?

We also joined in the refreshing fun.

Our water play was a spur of the moment idea, so Koen did not have any extra pants. He had to leave like this instead:

There is a sculpture park not too far that has Family Fun Days in June. Every Friday night this month they are showing a movie after a live band plays. We enjoyed watching Madagascar there this last Friday. We saw our first fireflies of the season that night too! Thankfully, it wasn't extremely humid that evening either! I'll have to go back just to get pictures of some of the sculptures to share with you.

Last Saturday, we visited Grant's Farm. Admission: Free Parking: $11 (We parked along a trail that goes by the farm. It was a longer walk, but nice, and definitely worth saving $11!) You get a "train" ride through a good portion the park, and then you can walk through another part to see several kinds of animals. It was a lot of fun.

I had never seen a horse with blue eyes before! It was pretty, but sort of weird looking at the same time.

We were amazed by the difference in size between the Clydesdale and Horse.
You could see and pet all sorts of animals. One girl fed a camel. You can feed baby goats. There are several other animals there too. Elephants, lemurs, iguana, llamas, all sorts of birds, and more. It was like a small zoo!
This sprayed bridge is a comforting refresher on a hot day.

I wanted to share some videos with you, but I do not seem to have luck with getting them to upload. :( St. Louis is a ton of fun and we are enjoying the new scenery. We hope all is well for everyone!

We've Arrived!

2011-05-26T18:46:00.004-06:00

We left Salt Lake a couple of weeks ago and moved to Arnold, MO, which is just 20 minutes away from St. Louis. We already love where we are and feel that we chose a good spot for us.

Here's our story:

Jon pulled a trailer for the first time.

We were super lucky to get permission to take Elder Bodily and his companion out for lunch. And silly me... I never got a picture of him and his companion, well, not at least with his companion looking at the camera.

The sign says, "She's my sister!"
Kevin had told Mom and Dad that he weighed in at 210 pounds some time ago. So I thought we'd have a little fun and have him weigh in for us.
Not quite 210, but 197.8 isn't bad either. ;)
We got a surprise visit from Mom and Dad in Cheyenne! Some of their plans fell through that day so they decided to be a little spontaneous and meet up with us. It was a wonderful surprise!

Koen loved watching Dad cut up watermelon.
We still like to be kids too.
Koen with Grandad and Grandma B.
One of the gas stations we stopped at had several video games. Koen loved pretending to drive a race car. "FINALLY, control at the wheel!" haha

A few days and several states later, we arrived and moved in.

Here's our main living area and kitchen. I thought about sharing pictures of our bedrooms, but really, they are just like any other bedroom, so I decided that these photos would suffice.

Balcony view... its been a good bird spotting area for Koen.

Koen has warmed up to the new surroundings very well. He seems to find the new space exciting. He is sleeping pretty normal, if not a bit better than before. I am grateful that he has been adjusting so well.

Koen's Grandpa and Grandma Williams came to spend a few days with us while everyone had some time off from work. Koen warmed up pretty quickly and was reading books with Grandpa within the first hour.

Grandma Williams wasn't afraid to get a little silly.

They watched Koen for a few hours so that we could do a session in the St. Louis temple. It was beautiful of course and allowed us to add another temple on our "Temples Attended" lists.

We spent a day at the zoo and these ducks decided to greet us as soon as we got out of the car. Both Koen and Grandma were excited to see them.

Can you find the walking sticks in this picture? There are at least two.

Koen was exhausted before we got through the whole zoo. St. Louis' zoo is a GREAT zoo. It's the best (out of the four I've been too) zoo I've been too. And to make it even better... it's FREE!

The day Grandpa and Grandma Williams left, Koen still wanted to look for the birds with them. Did you notice the change in Koen's hair? That is if you can see it! haha He got another hair cut and it turned out quite a bit shorter than we expected. I MISS his hair! But... it will probably feel much cooler for him during the hot summer.

Last week we decided to walk around the mall. There was a stand selling hermit crabs in decorated shells. Look at how colorful they are!

We walked through an outdoorsman store. Jon and Koen enjoyed playing in a tent there.

And the reason we're here:

Jon started his internship at the NGA this last Monday. He is learning a lot and sadly, really can't say much about anything. He has been sworn in and vowed to never talk about the things that he will do and see there. So you can just know that Jon will be working at this government mapping company, helping our country by analyzing whatever he is tasked. And since it is pretty well secured and monitored, Koen will not participate in any "bring your child to work" days if Jon is with the NGA long-term. I guess he probably won't be bringing Jon to school to talk about what he does for a living either. But Jon is so far enjoying it there and is excited about his time with them.

Koen doesn't let the humidity bother him at all here. He still adores spending as much time as we'll allow outside.

Missouri has been so kind with it's welcoming weather (after yesterday, I mean that very sarcastically). We have already had a few days of which our county has been in a tornado warning or watch. For those less familiar with tornados, the tornado warning is worse than the watch. Yesterday afternoon we already experienced the sound of tornado sirens. Just as Koen and I were leaving the park yesterday afternoon, I got a call from both Jon and Carla warning me of the storm that was coming and how it looked like a tornado could very likely be coming right for us. I did not like this at all. The storm did come right over us, producing the biggest things of hail I've ever seen. Oddly enough to me... it really wasn't very windy. We watched the cloud that weathermen were eyeing as the possible tornado starter go by. Jon was like a kid on Christmas morning as we experienced the whole thing. I wanted nothing to do with it and was very nervous. I am not comfortable or excited when tornado sirens are blaring near home... especially when home is the top, third floor. eek!

But I am VERY HAPPY to say that a tornado did not form and we are very safe. I hope we do not experience any tornados while here.

You wouldn't want one of those things to plop on your head would you?

So that's our story and we're stickin' to it!

Birthday Man

2011-05-10T15:05:00.002-06:00

Jon had a birthday shout, HORRAY!

We celebrated Jon's 27th birthday last week on the 2nd. It was a good day. Besides getting special birthday treatment, it was also the last day of school for the semester.

He was especially excited about getting a new mountaineering book.
I hope you had an awesome day Jon! We love you!

Mom and Me Time

2011-05-08T16:20:00.003-06:00

Mom came over last week and we went to Women's Conference together. It was wonderful! We had such a good time together. I loved the mother-daughter time we had. I am so grateful for Jon and his willingness to help out with Koen so much so that Mom and I could have two whole days together!

I have a truly amazing Mom! She is one of my best friends and I am proud to call her Mom. I hope that I can be a mom to my children the ways my mom is to me.

We crocheted scarves for a service project.

We enjoyed a fun concert with several talented artists.

Koen had some good times with Grandma B. too!

Though the pictures do not sure due to a lack of good ones on my part, Jon was apart of some of our fun times too. :) Thank you Mom for the opportunity to go to conference with you!

The Outstanding Undergrad!

2011-04-23T10:40:00.001-06:00

Last night, Jon and I went to a Geography reception where he and others were being recognized for their help in the geography department and for scholarships and awards that they've been given.

Jon was thanked for his help in the Geography club, recognized for receiving a scholarship for the next school year and given a certificate for being the Outstanding Undergraduate Student of the 2010-2011 school year! Jon knew he was going to be recognized for his scholarship but didn't realize that he'd be receiving the certificate of achievement that he did. Jon works so hard with all of his school work and it is extremely cool that the university's administration recognized it enough to award him with that. I am so proud of Jon and so grateful for his huge efforts in his schooling. Way to go Jon!!! We love you and are so proud of you!

Birthday Flame

2011-04-17T15:21:00.002-06:00

Jenny's birthday was the other day. We put all 28 of her candles on her cake, though from the output of light they gave off... I think I may have put them a little too close together.

The thought was that by putting them close together, it would be easier to blow out. Well it turned out to be quite the opposite. It took several tries to get the giant flame out.

How would you interpret this expression??? :)

Maybe Koen is a little confused about where his front crib railing went? He is now free to get in and out of bed on his own! What a big boy he is!
It snowed early last week. Koen and Jon didn't waste time and went hard at play! Jon carved a seat into one of the giant snow balls he rolled up for Koen.
Koen was ready for a cold ice treat.

The Parent's Post

2011-04-17T14:56:00.002-06:00

I know that the majority of our blogs focus a lot on Koen. He is after all a major part in our lives that we take much pride and joy in. So I thought it would be nice to share a tiny bit about what Koen's parents have been up too.

Jon is sticking with his hiking and snowshoeing that he loves very much. He went snowshoeing with a buddy of his a few weeks ago and they had a great time!

They saw where several avalanches had fell and even got to watch a few happen while helicopters dropped explosives to start them for avalanche control.
Look at all that snow in the bridge!

I ran another 5k several weeks ago. It was nice to run a race again. It was the COLDEST race I have ever done before! BRRRRR!

Park Family Sealing

2011-04-17T14:42:00.004-06:00

We had one of the best days ever (literally) when we got to witness that Park family being sealed together for all of time and eternity. It was AWESOME! I with that I had a larger vocabulary so that I could much better describe the greatness of it with a word better than 'awesome', but we'll make due with what I've got. It was wonderful!

Thank you Park family for letting me photograph your beautiful family on your special, special day. These are some of my favorites:

Expressive Women

2011-04-13T20:19:00.003-06:00

All of us lovely ladies went out for a Girl's Breakfast to celebrate the Parks special family sealing day. As you can see, we can be pretty expressive. I think one conversation was about eyebrows. It was a wonderful morning and I believe we all had great time.

March Madness Report

2011-04-10T20:25:00.002-06:00

I accomplished our ward's March Madness challenge and read the entire Book of Mormon in March. It was awesome and I LOVED it! I got more out of the Book of Mormon than many other times I have read it. Since I was reading quite a few chapters each day, as opposed to just one like I usually did, I was able to much more easily understand and remember what was going on.

I couldn't help but recognize just how similar today's times are to the days of old. We face the same issues that people faced back then. The stories in the scriptures are extremely relevant to our times and there is so much to learn from them.

I am so happy that I participated in the challenge our Primary president gave us to read the whole Book of Mormon last month. It has helped me to love the scriptures even more and to learn to study and ponder them instead of just read them.

I spoke in church today about scriptures, so if you're interested, I've just posted my talk in the church studies section.

Love Him

2011-04-07T20:37:00.001-06:00

I love this little guy more and more each day!

Hairspray VS Ink

2011-04-02T09:09:00.002-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, Koen introduced the pen to one of his books. Several pages were drawn on. Well not long ago, I learned at a baby shower that cheap hairspray removes pen marks from clothing. (The woman said, the cheaper the better.) So I looked online today and saw someone suggest using hairspray to remove pen marks from a book as well. So I thought I would try it. And it definitely worked!

So I wanted to share this new trick I've learned with all of you! I sprayed hairspray on a washcloth, and then rubbed, rubbed, rubbed! Thankfully before I got to my last page to work on, I thought to take a picture to demonstrate.

Note: This is a hard book. I would not suggest this for paper pages.

Before:

After:

Snow and the Zoo

2011-03-09T15:47:00.004-07:00

Monday night brought a good amount of snow. Jon measured 10 inches of new snow in our backyard the next morning. So that afternoon we decided to enjoy it and play around.

Koen enjoyed a snowball that Jon made him.

My two men building a snow tower.
I just thought this was a funny picture.
Koen LOVED playing outside in the snow, just like his dad.

We went to the zoo with Koen for the first time last week. Unfortunately part of the zoo is closed until next year for some remodeling. We were a little sad about missing out on the bears because Koen loves bears, but we'll go again next Spring. We all still had a great time.

I thought it was so funny how this giraffe would lick the doorway to inside his building.

E a R

2011-02-28T21:36:00.002-07:00

Koen had his first ER trip today. I didn't see it happen, but he fell down and as you'll see below, cut his hear pretty well. I think he hit it against the bottom of our bed. I couldn't tell at first whether his cut went all the way through or not, but thankfully, it did not.

He quit crying rather quickly after it happened and often played while we were in the hospital, until someone touched his ear of course, which caused him to scream again. But I'm happy to say that he didn't need stitches because they were able to glue it instead. I hope it heals quickly and doesn't irritate him at all.

Koen was right back to his happy, running around everywhere and climbing up everything, self as soon as we made it home. I'm happy he gets over his physical injuries quickly. :)

He got a popsicle afterwards to help him leave the hospital on happy terms.

The "after" look. I wonder if he'll have a scar?

March Madness

2011-02-27T21:55:00.005-07:00

The youth in our ward has March Madness each year... though it has nothing to do with basketball. Our primary president has encouraged the primary and us leaders to participate this year as well. Though the primary kids have a much simpler version.

So what is March Madness??? It is the task of reading the entire Book of Mormon in the month of March. In our ward, if the youth is able to do it, their name is added to a plaque that is displayed in the church. We are going to start a plaque in the primary as well. We've asked the primary children to either read the whole Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon Stories manual (we sometimes used it for FHE in our family when I was younger.), or to read in their Book of Mormon each day in March.

I am taking on the challenge to read the entire Book of Mormon in the month of March! I don't expect it to be easy. I believe we were told that we should read at least 8 pages a day. I am excited for the challenge and am looking forward to it. :)

Feel free to join the March Madness challenge as well!

Self Portrait

2011-02-24T14:53:00.004-07:00

I've been wanting to update my portrait for quite some time. I've never been in love with what I have on my photo blog and wanted to replace it. So today, I took a couple of self portraits.

Which do you prefer? (or even tell me if you don't like either one!)

Mini-shoot

2011-02-23T15:38:00.004-07:00

I decided to stop by a couple of places while we were out today. Two of the spots shown in these pictures are actually in our backyard. We spent just a matter of minutes in front of each spot. I definitely wish I had someone else with me to help catch Koen's attention towards the camera, but I'm still pleased with them as a whole.

Our February

2011-02-22T10:37:00.010-07:00

February has been a fast and very fun month.

Koen got stuck between a dresser and ottoman.

We played in the park.
We enjoyed stake conference in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square and got to have Elder Christofferson speak to us.
We enjoyed pink heart-shaped pancakes on valentines day. (Thanks Grandma B.!)

This is a tad bit blurry, but this is a popular expression of Koen's lately. It makes me laugh every time and it often comes randomly.

We tried out a mohawk on Koen.
We got to play at the Gateway Discovery Center with Danielle, Meagan and the girls. Koen LOVED it and could easily spend all day there in full bliss.

Koen and Jon having a little camera fun.

Danielle was in town for a Shelf Reliance conference. We very much enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time with her and Kaylee. We had the privilege of watching Kaylee while Danielle went to the conference. We had a good time playing ball together.

We seemed to tire Kaylee out afterwards.

We went to the Church History Museum. They have an awesome interactive exhibit for children.

Koen found entertainment in dresser drawers.
Koen is now climbing everything that can possibly be climbed on. He's gets onto the beds, tables, chairs, the computer desk and even in this little shelf thing in our bathroom.

After Koen realized he wasn't sure of how he was going to get out, he didn't like this spot too well.

Castles of Ice

2011-02-22T10:15:00.004-07:00

The three of us headed out to Midway yesterday to check out the ice castles. They were beautiful! Jon and I have a dream house with plenty of land that we hope to create someday when it's affordable, which means probably when we're much older. We continually add to what we would like it to be like. After seeing the ice castles, we thought it might not be a bad idea to try to create these amazing structures ourselves and charge people to see them too. haha

They really are pretty neat to see. I was having a great time photographing them in all sorts of ways. It was a beautiful day to see them. I love the blue that comes through in them too. Though these structures are man made, I think they still show the beauty of God's creation.

Crocheted Hat with Flower

2011-02-06T16:05:00.002-07:00

Meagan helped me learn out to read a crochet pattern the other day and this was my first project to attempt. I'm pleased with it and am ready to find other new projects to work on!

Growin and growin

2011-01-30T14:14:00.003-07:00

Ever since Koen turned a year, I now tell people he is a year old, rather then tell them how many months old he is. But a friend mentioned today that Koen is 14 months and I hadn't realized it. I feel like he just turned one a few weeks ago.

Our little guy is definitely growing and changing in many ways.

Koen knows how to go down the stairs by himself.

He likes to spin in circles when you tell him to spin.

He loves to take his gummy vitamins each morning and night.

He loves the toothpaste on his toothbrush more than brushing his teeth.

He mimics us much more.

He is babbling with different sounds more often.

Koen says, "Ma" for more, "bah" for ball and sort of says "bear" for bear and bird. He also has a way of saying Jesus but I'm not quite sure of how to spell what it sounds like.

Koen loves to climb.

Lately, he thinks its funny to open his mouth as widely as he can and finds it funny when we do it too.

Koen smacks his lips when we talk about giving kisses and will sometimes give us one too. He'll also smack his lips at the end of a prayer because that Jon and I always kiss afterwards.

Koen no longer has his floppy wave. He recently switched it up and is now opening and closing his hand to wave. Though it usually looks like he's waving to himself, he means to be waving to others.

Koen still makes many new friends whenever we're out and about. The ladies just flock to him! haha Koen is often a ball of energy and full of laughs. He can easily laugh on and on without any apparent reason. His extreme happiness is very contagious and we love it! I often look at Koen and just marvel at the blessing he is to us. I am continually amazed by him and grateful to Heavenly Father for trusting him into our care.

The Holidays

2011-01-16T19:29:00.014-07:00

Time seems as though it has traveled at the speed of light since the beginning of December. It has been BUSY and fun!

We were lucky enough to get to spend Christmas AND the New Year with my parents. We had such a great time there!

While Mom and I made delicious Christmas goodies, Jon and Dad went wild turkey hunting. They had success and came home with two ugly turkeys. (Yes, ugly... I think turkeys are quite ugly and unhappy looking.)

They plucked the birds quickly after returning home and we ate turkey for dinner that night. I don't have a picture of it, but the bird wasn't pretty after being cooked either. It turned a funny color. Though it was the most fresh and organic turkey we had ever ate, it was probably the worst. Note!... it wasn't because of the cook! haha It tasted like normal turkey, but was quite tough. So I have decided that I prefer a store bought turkey with whatever stuff they may do to it over the fresh and wild.

Santa remembered that we weren't going to be home during Christmas and came by. We had a wonderful Christmas. We especially enjoyed the gift of being able to talk with Elder Bodily over the phone. It was a lovely day.

We played in the snow and a had a good time. Koen even enjoyed himself after we took the big helmet off of his little head. We definitely loved having the luxury of a snowmobile pulling us back up the hill after tubing too!

Koen got his very first hair cut too!!! His mullet it now gone and believe it or not, he's still a stud! haha He didn't enjoy having his head held with our hands and not being able to see what was happening. But he recovered quickly.

Jon and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. Thanks to Grandma B. staying home with Koen, the two of us were able to have a lovely time together. We headed out not knowing fully how we were going to celebrate our anniversary in the small towns of Wyoming, but we figured it out. After having lunch together, we decided to play of few games of bowling. Lucky for Jon and I, neither of us have too hot of bowling skills, so they were pretty fair rounds. I think Jon won more games though. Way to go! We also saw the movie, True Grit, which was a pretty good movie. We really enjoyed it. After the movie, we decided to change things up and go for dessert before dinner by stopping at Dairy Queen to try out their Reindeer Bites Blizzard. They were yummy, as most ice cream products are. haha We ate dinner less than a mile away from where my parents live. We both loved our dinners and would enjoy eating at that restaurant again. Jon tried veal for the very first time and thought it was very good.

Other fun included Koen trying on Grandma B.'s snow boots.

Koen loved bouncing on the exercise ball!
Grandma B. was so sweet and helped Koen get ready for bed by bathing him and getting him dressed in his pajamas.

Koen had fun with Grandad too!

He fell in love with Dottie. She easily stole Koen's attention almost every time she walked by. Dottie was pretty patient with Koen, though he did catch a scratch or two from her claws.
Koen wanted to show Grandma B. how cool he is in her sunglasses.
We played a fun game of monopoly. Dad came from behind with few properties and won the game.

Grandma B. showed Koen just how fun bubbles can be. He loved them!

We stayed up for the count down on New Years Eve. Since there wasn't television to watch it on, we decided to count down with the computer. We unfortunately missed the opportunity to count the last 10 seconds of 2010 while we were preparing for the moment. After we realized that 2011 had already arrived, we decided to count down anyway. It was kind of funny and I actually enjoyed it that way.

We were pretty tuckered afterwards.

We had such a wonderful time during the holiday season. It was full of fun and unexpected events. We look forward to 2011 and what is to come. We hope that everyone else loved their holiday celebrations as well!

Lemi Shine

2011-01-12T23:37:00.005-07:00

I don't think I've ever voluntarily advertised a product on my blog before, but I have decided that this stuff deserves it!

A month or so ago our dishes began to look and feel disgusting after going through the dishwasher, and it wasn't because of food. The glass was no longer clear. It brought on some kind of foggy film. Instead of black handles, my favorite nice knife had a gray handle and looked horrible next to my pretty, much less used knives in my knife block. The silverware had lost their shine and looked dull. I could feel whatever this unknown nastiness was on most of the dishes too.

We wondered if it was the soap since it was replenished with a slightly different kind not too long ago. I tried hand washing, and SCRUBBING with all my might to get whatever it was off of the dishes. I would run the dishwasher normally once and then again without any soap in hope that the super hot water would rinse it all off. I refilled the tiny thing in the dishwasher that you can put some kind of liquid stuff in that is suppose to help keep your dishes clear and shiny, but there was never success.

I began to think that I would possibly buy a dish rack (for some reason Roene doesn't have one) and start to hand wash all of the dishes in hope that they at least wouldn't get any worse, and with the slight hope that maybe after a year or so they'll turn normal again. I also thought to myself that whenever we get into our own place, I want to throw away several of the spoons, spatulas, and yes, our favorite knife, and replace them with new ones that didn't look dirty all of the time. It bothered me so much that they looked gross and dirty even when they were clean! I felt that several of my dishes were ruined and I wanted to someday replace them.

Then I came across "Lemi Shine" while strolling along in the grocery store. I personally thought it looked like the cheapest stuff on the shelf, and in fact, I think it was for that kind of product. But I also needed cheap, especially if I wasn't sure if any of this stuff was going to do what I was hoping it would do. After coming home, I noticed it even had a money back guarantee, so I decided I was totally going to take advantage of that! I followed the instructions: Run the dishwasher with Lemi Shine once without any dishes so that it can clean the dishwasher. Then wash dishes with your favorite detergent along with Lemi Shine. The next morning I was excited to open up the dishwasher (I'm usually not) to see if this stuff actually worked. I had some speculations. And in case you hadn't guessed yet... IT WORKED!!!! I was 100 times... ok, maybe only 20 times more excited than when I headed down there to see if it had worked! Both Roene's and my dishes all look normal again!!! My knife matches the rest in my knife block! I don't feel any kind of film on the dishes any more and I feel much better about cooking in and eating off of the dishes now.

I am officially a firm believer in Lemi Shine and will recommend it to anyone with the same problem as what I had. My only regret is that I didn't take "before and after" pictures to share with all of you. So you're just going to have to take my word for it! ;)

(If you made it to the end of this post... a normal post with more interesting life events and pictures is hopefully to follow before long.)

St. Louis, MO

2010-12-13T15:58:00.003-07:00

Jon has been accepted for an internship with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) at their St. Louis, Missouri location!!!

We are so excited and thrilled. It is a paid summer internship and he should be leaving for it in May or June of 2011. He will be working as an analyst. We're not sure what he will be analyzing at this point, but it's possible no one else but Jon will really know because it could be classified. Jon has to go through a security check before he can start. The NGA's goal is to make Jon a full-time employee after he finishes his internship and graduates school.

Koen and I will be staying in Salt Lake while Jon moves to St. Louis next summer. I do not look forward to being apart from Jon at all. I have no doubt that I will have a very hard time while Jon is gone for so long. (Thank goodness for the blessings of internet, telephones, and mail!) We will miss him tremendously. But this internship is a huge blessing and great opportunity for our family. The time that Jon will be gone, is relatively short.

Because the NGA is wanting to bring Jon on as an employee after he graduates, it is likely that Missouri will become our next home. It's comforting knowing that Jon will likely have a job right after graduation. It's also exciting to think about a new place and a new adventure. I sure hope that we fall in love with the area. If Missouri does become our next home, I will greatly miss the beautiful Utah mountains that I continually fall in love with.

I am so excited and happy for Jon! He works tremendously hard in school for our family and is a wonderful father and husband.

Way to go Jon! We are all so very proud of you!

Other not quite so big news, I finally got a calling! I've been called as the 1st counselor in the Primary presidency! I'm super excited for it. I have no idea what I will be doing yet, but I can hardly wait to find out! The primary is small, especially for a Utah ward. I believe there are only about 15 children or so. The junior and senior primary meet together. I'm hoping that since there aren't very many children, that I can get to know each of them personally and let them all know that I love them. (Isn't it cool how you can instantly love people, especially children, without really knowing them yet?) I'm hoping the responsibilities of my new calling will keep me busy, especially when next summer comes!

From Babe to Toddler

2010-12-06T21:19:00.003-07:00

Koen turned a year old on the 2nd. The last year, as I'm sure every parent says, went by tremendously fast. Looking at Koen now, I almost wonder when he changed. He's definitely not the newborn we welcomed into the world a year ago.

He has his 12 month appointment this Thursday, so I will let you know what his stats are then.

We celebrated Koen's birthday twice. His first party was in Arkansas while we were visiting for Thanksgiving. We decided to make a dog for Koen's first cake, inspired by a small puppy toy that he has. We also made a small dog bone cake so that Koen could have a cake to himself to destroy and enjoy. With the help of my mother- and sister-in-laws, they were both a success! The dog was the most ambitous cake I've tried before and I had so much fun working with fondant as well. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, only time consuming.

We celebrated Koen's second "1st birthday" party after we got home. My mom and sister helped out with this cake as well. It was a fun project to do together. Again, it was time consuming since we used fondant, but not too hard. We made a dog bowl so that it would match the "dog theme" created by the last cake we made for him. It was also a tasty success.

Thank you to my lovely family for your help! Both cakes were a ton of fun to create and devour.

I can hardly believe that Jon and I are officially parents of a toddler! Though I still think of Koen as my baby. We have enjoyed watching Koen grow and develop.

Jon went on a hike not too long ago. He didn't get to finish it but got to see some beautiful views!

Crazy Fun

2010-11-06T19:08:00.007-06:00

Koen is 11 months old now. In just a matter of weeks, Jon and I are going to be proud parents of a 1 yr old! (WOW!)

Koen is still walking like crazy. He sometimes gets going so fast its almost as if he's trying to run. haha But when that happens, he'll often end up falling forward on his hands. He's SO CLOSE to standing up on his own (if he's not there already.) There's been times when though I haven't seen it, I wonder if he must have stood up by himself. Koen doesn't try to stand up on his own the way most babies I've seen do it though. In stead of using his hands at all, he'll sit up on his knees, put one foot up, and then try to push himself up off the ground with his legs alone. (I'm not sure if that description made sense, but I don't know how else to do it.)

Jon just finished up some more mid-terms in school. He'll finish up this semester next month. We've learned he is a finalist in an internship he's applied for and we're really hoping he gets it. Unfortunately, if he does get it, he would be moving away from Koen and I next summer until the fall semester would begin again. But it would a great opportunity for Jon and our family. He'd be working all of next summer, then go to school for a couple more semesters, and then hopefully (we're told it would be likely) have a set job with the same company he interned for. It would be super wonderful if he had a job immediately after finishing school! We won't know if Jon has been accepted until some time in December. So we'll just wait and see what happens.

We went to the park yesterday to feed the geese. Koen had fun watching these new animals so closely, but he doesn't understand to toss the bread yet. Instead, he'll eat it himself. He had a blast walking around on his own though and enjoying the fresh air.

Jon let a couple of geese grab their bread right out of his hand... it was a tad nerve-wracking.

I don't remember why he was crying, but I thought this was a funny picture.

Koen sure loves his dad!

We also went to a football game today. Utah was playing TCU. The game was packed and tickets were sold out. We expected it to be a really great game, but instead, it was rather embarrassing and horrible! Our beloved Utes did not do well at all. We ended up leaving the game in the 3rd quarter while we still had yet to score a single point. :( The game ended at 47-7... TCU :( Koen did super well though!!! :)

We celebrated Halloween with a "Nerd" party. Koen is just too cool though and decided to dress up as a soccer player instead.

The party was a success and everyone seem to have a ton of fun!

It snowed a couple of weeks ago. Jon was very excited and couldn't wait to share his great joy with his favorite little man. We tried letting Koen walk around in the snow... but he was pretty hesitant. We've had lovely weather since then, though I think snow is in the forecast again very soon.

He's Walking!

2010-10-24T21:44:00.010-06:00

Koen actually took his first steps a couple of weeks ago and since then, has taken a few here and there. Of course, never when we tried to get him to or when the camera was ready. But today, he's been a walking maniac! Its as if he's suddenly realized he CAN do it and has found new self confidence. He's been walking across rooms and going all over the place. It is so fun to watch him. WAY TO GO KOEN! I'm having a hard time getting my video to upload so hopefully I'll get it later.

Last week I put a tiny bit of Jon's hair glue in Koen's hair to see what we could do, just for fun. He looked pretty funny with these "wings" of hair behind his head.

We made a fort one night. Koen loved it.

We went on a hike last week during Jon's fall break. This was Koen's very first mountain hike. It was pretty chilly when we got started that morning, but as you can see, it didn't hold Koen's excitement back.

It was a beautiful hike and we made it to the top!

It got pretty hot during the second half of the hike:

Unfortunately, on our way down we passed a man who had fallen and needed to be carried out. We took a quick picture beside the truck before we left and before the rescue team got back.

We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon yesterday to enjoy the snow and see what Koen would think. Koen loved it, until Jon let him touch the snow with his hands. He didn't like that at all. (Don't worry, though you can't see it in this photo, we had a blanket around Koen. I think it just fell off his shoulders here.)

A Rat in the House?!

2010-10-14T11:12:00.008-06:00

Nope, it's just Koen. He's found interest in eating up our game boxes.

We have been staying busy, mostly with setting up the business, which I'm happy to announce is official! K. Williams Photography is now a licensed and registered business!

Koen is very close to walking. He accidentally took a couple of steps a couple of Sundays ago, and sometimes gets close to taking another. I'm excited for him to start walking and can hardly wait to see his tiny little body waddle across the room. He's doing a great job at standing up without holding onto anything though.

Some time ago, we went to Wheeler's Farm. Koen enjoyed being outside but hardly acknowledged the animals. It'll be more fun next year. It was still neat to go and look around though.

We saw this cow, very ready for milking.

And this duck with a fun hairdo.

This week is Jon's fall break so we've been able to spend a lot of time with him. We went to The Golden Spike Monument yesterday. Unfortunately, we were disappointed when we found out we practically drove all that way to see a 20 min film and an empty railroad track. We were hoping there would at least be a train that we could take a picture next too... but there weren't any trains to be seen. The original golden spike is no longer there either, just a replica. But we sure had fun with what we had!

Koen can say ma-ma now, though not meaning anything, and he doesn't say it often. He much prefers saying da-da. I think he TRIES to say dog... he knows that a little blue puppy of his is "dog" but the 'g' sound never comes out of his mouth.

It's crazy to think that in just a month and a half, Koen is going to be a year old! He's one lucky little boy and is going to get two parties to celebrate. We're heading to Arkansas for Thanksgiving and figure that since we'll just be a couple days away from his birthday, we'll throw a party for him so that Grandma and Grandpa Williams can enjoy it too. And then just a few days later, we'll celebrate again on his birthday here at home. I'm excited to celebrate his first birthday. Koen's milestones get me excited!

As I mentioned earlier, K. Williams Photography is an official business now. (Wouldn't it be nice if that automatically meant business came pouring in?! haha) I have a family photo shoot coming up next week. I'm praying that weather will work out in our favor. The plan is to go up in the mountains and as of today, there is a 60% chance of rain that day, which could mean snow in the mountains. But whatever the weather is, we'll make the best of what we get and I'm sure that I can get some great shots. I've donated a few photo sessions to some charity fundraisers in hope that it helps get my name out. I've been offered a table at a three day christmas sale as well. I'm super excited about the sale and the opportunity I'll have to talk with several people face to face. I don't have to pay for the table space and I'll be the only photographer at the event as well. I feel extremely blessed that I was asked to participate and offered such a chance.

Jon is no longer with FedEx. Unfortunately the late night hours and physical work seemed to take quite a toll on him. And though he slept in each day to try to get enough sleep, he started to fall asleep in his classes. So please pray that while Jon is currently unemployed, photography jobs come through!

Alright, well that is us in a nutshell right now. I'll try not to take so long to update next time. I hope all is well with everyone!

Koen didn't like this hat much.

An addition...

2010-09-21T22:26:00.002-06:00

I have made an addition to our blog. There is now a tab towards the top that will link to a page devoted to my church studies. I have mostly decided to do this because I think it will help me get more out of my studies each week, and to read the lessons that we go over in church each Sunday.

Feel free to comment on any of it if you would like. They may or may not be lengthy posts. I hope to post regularly, though I don't know how regular that will be. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes! :)

Mission,Check Up, & Football

2010-09-07T23:55:00.007-06:00

Mom, Dad, and Kevin came down last week because Kevin was needing to report to the MTC on Wednesday for his mission (He's been called to the Salt Lake City mission). It was so wonderful to get to see Kevin off with Mom and Dad. I know Kevin will be a fantastic missionary because of his love of the gospel.

Koen had his NINE MONTH checkup last Thursday!!! He didn't like this appointment as much as others, but at least he started out super happy as you can see in the following pictures.

The doctor said Koen is great! Here are his stats:

18.94 lbs (24%)

29 inches (76%)

17.1 in (head cir) (8%)

Monday night, we had a BSU vs VT Football party. It was a lot of fun and ended up being a good game, especially considering BSU won!!! Woo Hoo! I attempted making the "Smurf Turf" out of jello, but I also put an orange layer beneath, making it not so "smurf" looking. haha Better luck next time I guess. We had other blue and orange goodies for our party as well. It was a lot of fun.

And now, just some random photos.

Half Marathon Complete! 2:01:54.6

2010-08-30T08:22:00.005-06:00

We did it! My sister Meagan and I completed our first half marathon last Saturday. We ran the Top of Utah Half Marathon in Logan, and it was great!

Jon, Koen and I headed to Logan Friday afternoon and headed to the park where I was to pick up my race packet, which contains my race shirt, bib number, and usually a few coupons and advertisements. We arrived an hour before they started passing out the packets so we played around at first and then stood at the front of the line.

Koen is checking out Jon's face while we wait. He'll do this sometimes while he's on Jon's shoulders and its sort of funny how he does it.

Just another cute picture. Notice Koen's tongue is out in both photos. He sticks his tongue out often now.

We had a lovely hotel room. We especially thought the height of the shower head was well placed. haha

Race day!

Meagan and I headed out at 5:30 Saturday morning for the race. We rode buses up to the starting line at 6:15. The race started a little after 7:00.

The run went great. I really enjoyed myself. The course was beautiful down the canyon where we could see the trees and a river running along the road. It was a beautiful morning. I tried really hard this time not to focus at all on the people around me, just to enjoy myself and have fun. I had one really crummy side ache for a small time, but other than that, I felt pretty good during my run. I tried cheering other racers on after the first half of the race as well as I tried to tell myself I was doing a good job too. I was tired by the last stretch of the run, it was hotter than what I was use to running in, but I kept running the whole time. I pushed extra hard at the very end. I remember my dad teaching me to finish strong when I was young. I completed my run at 2 hrs, 1 min and 54.6 sec! I am pleased with my time, though being as close to under 2 hrs as I was... I wish I would have pushed myself even harder throughout the race. So my goal for my next half marathon will be exactly that: to run it in under 2 hrs.

Finishing the race.

Out of 2012 runners that day I placed:

693th Overall

373th in Gender out of 1385

36th in 20-24 F division out of 184

The scoop on us

2010-08-16T15:46:00.007-06:00

Plenty has been happening and we have been staying super busy.

Kevin came to Salt Lake and visited for a bit. The purpose of his visit was to go hiking with Jon. They climbed Kings Peak and had a wonderful time.

We had dinner and played games at Josh and Meagan's. We had a great time and I appreciated everyones willingness to let me capture their beautiful faces on camera:

Jon, Meagan and I were able to go through the Salt Lake Temple with Kevin too. It was great!

And just as I posted earlier, we recently moved. Koen came from a bath in here:

to here:

Koen is growing tremendously fast. He has learned to climb the stairs pretty well. I'm working on teaching him how to safely come down too. He loves to say, "ba" all the time and is still good at blowing spit bubbles. His third tooth recently cut through too. We've started a bed time routine, I hope it will help get him in bed earlier, but we will give it some time.

Even though we moved, I've been blessed to be able to keep my garden until the season is over. We've been able to have fresh beans for dinner already and my cucumber is growing well too. Unfortunately, neither broccoli or watermelon grew for me this year. We'll hope they'll work better another time.

And here are just a few other photos:

Koen examining the grass.

At a baseball game.

We've Moved!

2010-08-07T14:55:00.002-06:00

We moved into a new place this week and this is the first time many of you are probably hearing about it because it all happened so very quickly!

We weren't really looking for a new place to stay, as we have really enjoyed where we've been so much. Though an opportunity came up that we just couldn't pass up, especially at this time, while Jon is unemployed.

We have moved in with a sweet 86-year-young woman named Roene. She is wonderful and we greatly enjoy her company. Roene and her children were looking for someone who could stay with her in case of an emergency and to help with things around the house.
There is no rent payment, instead we are paid each month for our services. Our responsibilities include cleaning the house, cooking and having dinner with Roene, helping her grocery shop if needed, and other small tasks if needed. Roene is really pretty independent, but she and her family just feel better about having someone around.
We have moved into the upstairs of Roene's lovely home. Instead of our 1/2 bedroom that we had at our old place, we now have three bedrooms and a full bathroom (bathtub included!) to ourselves. I very much enjoy having a room just for Koen and a room just for Jon and I. The third room is more of a game room/study. I have longed for a tub for almost 4 years, and it is great to now have one! Especially for bathing Koen.
Roene is great. She is recovering from having her kidney removed after finding cancer there, though she seems to be doing wonderfully now. We've learned that she loves movies too. She always has a movie to suggest we all watch together. She adores Koen and I believe he will be good for her and that he will adore her too.

I will try to post photos before too long. We do not have internet upstairs where our computer is at right now, so it may slow me down, but I will definitely try to get some up soon.

Mobile!

2010-07-09T12:47:00.001-06:00

On Monday, Koen crawled for the first time. Since then, he's done better each day. I was able to get a video of him crawling this morning and wanted to share with all of you. I better quickly move many things up in the house!

Growing

2010-06-28T16:22:00.003-06:00

Koen will be 7 months before the end of this week! WOW! SEVEN MONTHS! He's growing so fast and is learning quickly. He can sit up by himself very well now. I've been able to catch him sit himself up from being on his hands and knees a couple of times too. It seems Koen is nearing the crawling stage each day. He's getting so close! I hope that he'll first crawl when Jon is home though. Koen's Grandma Williams will be visiting soon, maybe she'll get to be apart of that moment too. Koen also stood himself up by grabbing onto a shelf in the fridge this morning! Again, he's growing so fast!

Photo Shoots

2010-06-24T21:12:00.006-06:00

So earlier in the year (February) I photographed a wedding for a woman that I worked with. I took her engagement photos and she was pleased enough to ask me to do her wedding too. I was really grateful to her for giving me the opportunity. Here are a few shots:

I also recently had a photo shoot of a 2-yr-old girl that Meagan helped me with. Here's a small preview as well:

Awesome Jon

2010-06-24T20:57:00.004-06:00

Life is good for the Williams' family. We are staying busy and having fun.

Jon took a rock climbing course last weekend and fell in love with the sport. He seemed to learn a lot and really had a great time. I hope that some day we can both go together.

Father's Day was a success. We drove to Park City with the Biggers for a picnic dinner. Jon requested chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, corn, and Martinelli's for his meal. I was nervous our food wouldn't stay very warm for us because of the length of the drive, but the cooler I got for our picnic did an awesome job at keeping the heat in! Unfortunately, the wind quickly cooled our food once we started eating. But we still had a great time. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to do something a little different and extra special to celebrate Father's Day.

After dinner, we all headed back to the Bigger's place for dessert and a movie. Meagan and I made a homemade ice cream cake. It was DELICIOUS!

Jon really is a wonderful dad. He adores Koen and Koen loves him so much too. I truly appreciate Jon's help with Koen and how good he is to him. He loves to play with Koen and can really get some great laughs out of him. We love him so much!

Other news in our family, I have decided upon a couple of races to do this year with my sister Meagan. We are going to run a 10k on Pioneer Day and a half marathon at the end of August. We are doing a 10-week training for the half marathon as well as working out to P90X dvds each day. I'm confident we'll be in good shape and ready when race days come. I think that both races will be here before we know it!

Hide and Seek, Teeth, and Leaves!

2010-06-10T20:35:00.002-06:00

The other day I sat Koen on the floor and then walked into the kitchen. After a minute he began to cry. I figured it was because he was tired of lying on the floor and wanted me to pick him up. When I came for him, I couldn't see him in the room... Koen had rolled underneath our little table and didn't seem to like it there.

Here are a few shots of his first two teeth:

And while we were gone in Wyoming, our beans sprouted!!!

This is one of our cucumbers sprouting too.

The Numbers are In

2010-06-10T13:02:00.002-06:00

Koen had his 6 month check up today and he did great! The doctor said he is perfect! He also got some shots today, but I think he has taken them well. He calmed down rather quickly after he was poked and hasn't fussed since then. He was his normal happy self when we got home and he got to play with his dad. He's napping now, which is later than usual, so we'll just see how things go. But at least he hasn't seemed to act as if he's hurting and not feeling well.

Here are the stats:

Weight: 16.5 lbs (27%)

Length: 28 in (91%)

Head Circumference: 16.5 in (8%!)

I'm happy to hear from the doctor that Koen is doing so great. He's definitely perfect in all ways to us!

Vacation and Firsts

2010-06-07T09:28:00.007-06:00

We returned home from our week long vacation to Wyoming at 2:30 am on Sunday. It was a lot of great fun and full of several "firsts". I will TRY to share our experience without making this extremely long, but there are no promises. haha So here goes:

We arrived at Mom and Dad's early Friday evening and before long, we were already out the door with Dad and Kevin so that we could go caving with the branch's youth. Mom was so gracious as to watch Koen for us.

Though you can't tell by the photos, it was pitch black inside without our lights. There were a few spots where you had to crawl on your belly or squeeze through tight places in order to get though. We really enjoyed ourselves and had a blast.

Saturday was a busy day full of great events and fun celebration. We had a bbq to celebrate Kevin's high school graduation. Many people from their branch came too.

People just loved Koen. One lady was nice enough to let him chew and slobber on her finger.

Kevin entertained us all with his guitar and Koen loved it.

Sunday, (yes Sunday... weird) Kevin graduated from high school. It was the smallest high school graduation I've ever attended, I believe there were 37 in his graduating class. We were lucky enough to sit right behind the graduates, giving us a great view of the speakers. Kevin sang a song as part of the program too. Way to go Kevin!

On Monday, we went on a drive with Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Joyce up in the mountains to see if we could find any animals and just to enjoy the beautiful mountains. It truly was beautiful. We got to see a couple of moose that day. By the end of our vacation, we came across 16 moose!!!

We found some beautiful waterfalls along the way too.

On Tuesday, we left early in the morning with Mom and Dad to see Mt. Rushmore. This was not only Koen's first time to see Mt. Rushmore, but he also had his first nibbles of ice cream here.

We also went to Bear Country USA, which isn't very far from Mt. Rushmore. We saw several different animals. My personal favorite were the bear cubs.

We drove past Devil's Tower on our way back.

Wednesday we went 4-wheeling. It was also Koen's first time and I think he enjoyed it. He actually slept most of the time.

Thursday was Kevin's birthday. We went on a hike in the afternoon. (Another first for Koen.)

Koen really loved it but was exhausted by the end.

We played a game where you had to cut through flour that had a quarter on top.

If the flour collapsed after your turn, you had to pick the quarter up with your mouth.

Friday was our last full day at Mom and Dad's. We decided to do more 4-wheeling and cook up some delicious "Goojum" (I don't know if that's how one would spell it. But it is Dad's name for mixing a bunch of left overs together.) We had an awesome time.

Friday was also a day of a very big "First" for Koen. His very first tooth came through!!! Koen did extremely well too. We probably never would have known he was teething had we not seen or felt his tooth because he wasn't ever extra fussy or acting out of the norm. Way to go Koen!

Another first on Friday was Jon's. He shot his first animal. In Wyoming, anyone can shoot rock chucks, and thats what Jon got. Jon felt pretty proud of himself for getting it. But for the sake of others, I am not posting a picture.

Here's a few other photos from our time at Mom and Dad's:

We left early Saturday morning to go home. But we decided to spend most of our day in Yellowstone on our way back. We saw a total of 4 moose that day and a grand total of 7 bears in the park! Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of one of them, which was a tiny bear cub that had just ran back into the woods as I was coming. But it was neat to still see. The coolest one was the grizzly that I spotted on my own that had also crossed right in front of us. (Oh yeah, this was also Koen's first Yellowstone trip.)

What season are we in?

2010-05-25T22:51:00.004-06:00

Thank you Spring for the lovely surprise! I'm sure the garden loves you.

This was yesterday, May 24th. Thankfully, all of the snow was gone later in the day.

Last Weekend

2010-05-19T16:19:00.006-06:00

Last Saturday, Jon and I ran a 5K for the Brain Injury Association of Utah. It was a lot of fun to do together and I look forward to more. Thanks to Josh and Meagan's willingness to watch Koen for us, I was able to run without the stroller.

After our 5K, we got together with the Josh, Meagan and Abigail for some family pictures. We had a lot of fun. Another session will be coming but here are a few shots:

This is a favorite of mine.

After pictures, we all met at Hires Big H for dinner. I had never ate there before, so it was a new experience for me. It was quite a busy night, but we had fun and enjoyed our food. We decided to get dessert at Leatherby's Creamery. It is DELICIOUS icecream and they always give you A LOT of it! Unlike Hires Big H, Leatherby's was actually quite empty. We enjoyed our wonderful icecream treats together and then danced to music Josh had picked out on a jukebox. It was a blast! It's a shame there weren't any other customers there to join in on the fun. haha Maybe next time.